The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Films of the week LA nightscapes and dreams of reincarnation
BARRY DIDCOCK
– just so long as the victims are white, of course – Louis recruits sofa surfing slacker Rick (Riz Ahmed, on great form) to calculate the shortest route to the latest bloodbath. His preferred customer is KWLA 6, a station whose editor Nina (Rene Russo, Gilroy’s wife) is desperate for ratings. And so a gruesome marriage of convenience is born as Nina’s journalistic ethics are compromised and Louis bends the law in order to bag the money shot.
If you love films in which night-time Los Angeles plays
a neon-drenched role (Drive, Collateral etc.) Nightcrawler is a treat and Gyllenhaal, who lost two stone for the role on a special diet of kale salads and chewing gum, is mesmerising in the lead.
HEROES DON’T DIE MUBI, Now streaming
Adèle Haenel is fast becoming the go-to actress for France’s indie directors. Having established herself over a decade ago in Water Lilies, the debut film from former partner Céline Sciamma, and then starred in a slew of critically acclaimed films such as the Dardennes brothers’s arthouse hit The Unknown Girl, she found herself starring in three films at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. This is one of them, and again it marks a directorial debut.
Aude Léa Rapin is the woman behind the camera, Haenel her surrogate in a film which tells the story of a documentary film crew travelling from Paris to Bosnia in pursuit of a will o’ the wisp: a ghost, a figment of the imagination or a real man who lived and died in a town near Srebrenica. Which one it is, they aren’t sure.
Haenel is Alice, the director, who along with sound recorder Virginie (Antonia Buresi) and cameraman Paul (naturally we never see him) accompany Alice’s friend Joachim (Jonathan Couzinié) on a voyage of discovery after he has a startling encounter in a Paris street: a man with what he describes as an Eastern European accent recognises him, begins shouting at him, calls him Zoran, accuses him of murder and torture and then claims he died on August
21, 1983. Joachim is shaken because that was the day he was born.
Gradually a feeling comes over him that he is the reincarnation of Zoran. Alice films him in a trance-like state and one day he wakes to find he has scrawled a name on his arm. Alice recognises it as a place in Bosnia – she has spent time in the country covering the aftermath of the war and, handily, speaks Serbo-Croat. Crucial details about Joachim’s own back story are revealed later and it’s these that cause Alice and her crew to pack up a minivan and head for Bosnia in search of answers.
A blend of ghost story, road movie, war essay, meditation on mortality and art-for-art’s-sake wig-out, Heroes Don’t Die could never be described as flawless. There are too many threads.
But even in its mis-steps there’s a certain brio, and thanks to its thought-provoking premise and the efforts of the ever-watchable Haenel it never fails to hold the attention.
NEW comedy panel show Unforgiveable sees celebrities confess their darkest secrets, Danelle de Wolfe discovers more from presenter Mel Giedroyc.
Cringeworthy confessions make for great television. However, when those revelations come directly from the mouths of celebrities, it’s safe to say our interest has been piqued. Hosted by presenter and comedian Mel Giedroyc alongside her co-host and fellow comedian Lou Sanders, new Dave series Unforgivable does just that.
How does it work?
“We have three celebrity guests on every show and the aim of the game is that the person who can make themselves most unforgivable, wins the show.
“The scoring system is really quite complicated. It involves minus points. The lower the score, the better you’ve done. And you will achieve that by spilling the worst things about yourself. So that, in a nutshell, is what it is: show us what a horrendous person you are.”
There must be some memorable stories?
“We’ve got everything from eating pets to scandalous goings-on in the bath. There are a fair amount of poo stories. There are childhood stories which are always brilliant and often quite charming because when you’re a child you don’t have quite the same sort of moral compass or sensibilities that you have as you get older.”
Any standout guests?
“We’ve got Jennifer Saunders on, who I absolutely adore; she’s hilarious. And it was so good to hear stories from her because she can actually be a shy person and she doesn’t do that many shows like this.
“Graham Norton was absolutely wonderful. I love the way that he doesn’t shy away from telling stories about himself... Gemma Collins was superb too such a great storyteller”
What is it that sets this show apart?
“You get to see some comedians that maybe we haven’t seen enough of yet. Some brilliant comics of the future, and I was all for that. It’s really important and it gives the show completely different energy. It gives the show a bit of spice.”
And there are audience confessions too?
“The public confessions are more left-field, surreal and madder than you could ever make up. It’s always the way, isn’t it, that the stuff from real life is always the most outrageous.”
And you make some confessions yourself, don’t you?
“Yes. God, I can’t remember what. Did I say anything terrible? I did make a confession about working in catering on a friend’s short film. Everyone was working for free: the actors, the crew. Sue [Perkins] and I did it together and we’d been slaving away, making food and snacks and drinks to keep everybody happy.
“There was this actress and she had the audacity to come up and complain about something. And I thought, right buddy, you’ve complained to the wrong person because I’m in charge of the food. So I snotted into her pasta and presented it to her.
“I felt really bad though because she came up at the end of the afternoon and said it was really delicious! However, I’ve been a waitress so many times in my life, and I’ve worked behind bars.”
depressed Britain by inspiring people to create works of art in lockdown. Many people were amazed when his efforts worked, raising the spirits of the millions who tuned in and the thousands who submitted their creations for his perusal. Joining him throughout the process was his wife, psychologist Philippa, and the pair are all set to launch a new run next month. But before then, the couple return for a quick catch-up. They’re looking back at some of the highlights from the first series before turning their attention to the next batch of episodes. They’ll also be giving viewers a heads-up on the themes they’ll be exploring so that we can all start creating and submitting as soon as possible. news filters through that Bond has survived and M engages her physically bruised agent to track down menacing cyber terrorist Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem).
The Bling Ring (2013) (BBC1, 12.10am)
Inspired by a true story, Sofia Coppola’s drama follows a group of bored, fame-hungry Los Angeles teenagers who find a way to taste the celebrity lifestyle by robbing stars’ houses. However, when the cops finally catch up with them, it seems the burglars are about to
A Perfect Planet (BBC1, 8pm)
We’re turning a mirror onto ourselves this week - the final episode’s main focus is on how humans have impacted and changed the planet. It’s not a happy story, either. Almost every aspect of modern life depends on energy created by burning fossil fuels, which produces carbon dioxide in huge amounts. It’s the same gas that caused the cataclysmic volcanic eruptions behind many of the mass extinction events witnessed by the Earth since its formation.
Stacey Dooley: Back on the Psych Ward (BBC2, 9 pm)
Last year the reporter spent time at Springfield